Despite all the work that has to be completed I am feeling really lethargic at the office. This must be a Libra thing because we are supposed to go into periods of activity and inactivity.

It's pretty hard to go at work fullforce all the time, and there are moments when I just want to chuck it all and disappear.

I'm glad I've got this blog though, as writing here allows me to stop escape work for a bit.
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Berts, Aeroin and I visited the Worldbex yesterday. It's a builder's expo at the World Trade Center - and I try to go to this every year to keep abreast of new materials and suppliers.

Wooo. I never knew that decorative glass costs 2,500 to 3,000 per square foot. That's 33,000 per square meter. I guess we wont be using that material in the near future.

I also saw a cool material similar to acrylic, that came in a variety of patterns. Very nice and the supplier says you can even use it for flooring (I will have to ask about the sagging / support issues though, and I am a bit concerned about scratching). The leadtime is 60 days though, which is a bit too long as projects usually go on a 45 day timeframe. But who knows, this could come in handy for joinery.

I really wasnt able to go around much because we were late, but it looked like the same old same old. I'll try to visit again before it closes though.
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When at the yearly expo, I really don't know if I should get annoyed or flattered when the suppliers don't answer my questions or give much attention to me because they think I am a student. This could be because (1) I look younger than I am....good, or (2) I look poor and scruffy....bad. It really irks me when someone tells me "Ay, wala na kaming brochures para sa estudyante" when I see a bunch of them in a half opened cabinet behind her. I sometimes feel like saying. "Your loss, I need 80 sheets of beech laminate / 1200 square meters of carpet tile / whatever freaking material you supply, but I am not ordering from you you rude piece of shit. "
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Another thing I notice a lot is how people have this thing for freebies. While lining up yesterday at the queue marked "PRC ID holders" I was privy to a slight hissing match between the registration attendant and an architect/engineer. It appeared that the organizers had run out of these free carrying bags because they were reserved for some "VIP"s and the registrant was all huffy about it.

You should have seen the bag. It was a tote made of the material used for disposable underwear (you know, the ones you can find at the 7-11) , silkcreened with the logos of Davies Paint, Hardiflex, etc. Probably costs 10 pesos to make.

Whatta weirdo.
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Another thing I found a bit offensive about the expo is how some suppliers use scantily clad women to attract people to their booths. I've actually seen a plumbing fixture supplier's booth with starlets / models in halters and hotpants sitting on the toilet bowls while eating an ice cream cone. With loads of men hooting and ogling. Labo. But people are there, so their strategy seems to be working.
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Ok now here's the good part. And it is barely related to the Expo heheh.

After the expo closed, we decided to go on a quest for food, and ended up at Queens Crystal Garden in Jupiter Street, Makati. The restaurant serves Indian, and Malaysian / Singaporean Food. It's a bit pricey, we spent about 500 each (and not in baboy mode ha) for Samosas, a Papadum, some Butter Nans, Butter Chicken, Mutton Rogan Josh, a Dal dish, plain rice, and drinks (coke and Lassi). Ok, so we ordered quite a lot, pero the servings were not large.

The Samosas were really good, and we were given cilantro sauce, pickled onions, and cucumbers to go with it. Crunchy filo pastry, much better than the Samosas at Ziggurat. The papadum was humongous, but I wished they served Tamarind chutney to go with it because that would have played off the cilantro sauce very well. The nan was good too - soft, hot and chewy.

Butter chicken was a bit of a dissapointment. I was expecting a creamy buttery dish, but got pieces of chicken in a tomato based spicy sauce. Where was the butter??? The Rogan Josh was much better, pieces of mutton in a saffron-yogurt-masala sauce....ahhh, the meat was nice and tender, and the sauce was good enough to eat alone.

I love lentil dishes so the Dal with cream and butter was really yummy for me. They used split black lentils, and this is the best mix I've had in Manila so far. At 220 bucks a serving, it's a lot more expensive than what you can get in Bombay Kitchen (PHP 100), or Ziggurat (PHP 65). I wish they served a bigger amount of it so the price jump would be more justified.

We should have ended with Kulfi, which is a mega-sweet dessert made of condensed milk, pistachio and rosewater, but our itchy feet got the better of us and we decided to head over to Je Suis Gourmand for coffee and dessert, where we had a Chocolate Charlotte Cake with Espresso Sauce, Cassis Sherbet with Cassis Cream (black raspberry I think), and a Mango Mille Fieulle with Vanilla Ice Cream (sheee, this turned out to be a studel, still it sounded a lot more sophisticated in french).

Nothing was "May Diyos", but the Cassis sherbet would be a good palette cleanser. The coffee at Je Suis is pretty good though. Rich, fresh and strong.

Oh, if you go to Je Suis don't park in front of Net One Center. You'll get a fine for illegal parking.

Guess how I know.

This entry was posted on 3/17/2005 at 3/17/2005 02:56:00 am. You can skip to the end and leave a response.